Central Park 5 member: I would ‘absolutely’ sue Donald Trump

Yusef Salaam, a member of the Central Park 5 said in an interview with Yahoo News and Finance that he would consider suing GOP nominee Donald Trump.

It has been 27 years since the group of boys were charged with brutally raping and beating a woman in New York. The young men spent 13 years in prison before they were exonerated by DNA evidence in 2002.

At the time, Trump took out a full-page ad in four newspapers across the city that read “Bring Back The Death Penalty. Bring Back Our Police!”

Even now, Trump stands by this claim. He recently told CNN, “They admitted they were guilty. The police doing the original investigation say they were guilty.”

Salaam, who recently penned an article for the Washington Post about the dangers of Trump’s rhetoric, told Yahoo anchor Bianna Golodryga that he is now considering a lawsuit.

He said, “You know, we definitely — if our lawyers move forward and tell us that we can do that, then that is exactly the option that we will take. The great thing about today is that the statute of limitations has not expired. And if we have the opportunity do to just that, we will absolutely do that.”

Trump’s campaign has been the subject of a scandal in the last week as many women have come forward with sexual assault allegations against the former reality TV star, which he has firmly denied.

His denial and victim-shaming women while also recklessly standing by his repulsive claims that Salaam and the four other men were guilty is disturbing and probletmatic.

This wasn’t lost on Salaam, who told Golodryga that Trump’s accusations against him 27 years ago could have cost him his life. Now, he adds, “These allegations coming out against him in the media … about the atrocities that he’s done and now he’s trying to say ‘I was just playing, I was just talking amongst the guys.'”